Poland?s Cryptocurrency Taxation Plans Cause Outrage

Poland?s government recently released its cryptocurrency taxation policy but it ended up causing an outrage from the country’s cryptocurrency community and also raised doubts as to whether the country is pro-cryptocurrency.

Judging by the complaints, the new cryptocurrency taxation is not so different from banning the trading of cryptocurrencies. The policy involves a 1 percent ?civil law operation? tax and an income tax rate between 18 and 32 percent.

A Reddit user put things into perspective by providing an example where a trader has $10,000 to invest and invests in 100 trades. The person will end up making a profit of $5,000, bringing the total amount to $15,000. However, the trader will be forced to pay $10,000 as the civil law operation tax and $1800 in income tax, either way, it will be a loss for the trader. It is also worth noting that the taxes will apply even for loss-making trades.

Traders whose investment surpasses $25,000 will have to pay a 32 percent income tax which means they will lose even more. Traders would have to make more than 1 percent from every trade if they want to make any profits, and this adds to the already difficult cryptocurrency trading arena. The new cryptocurrency taxation regulations have been ridiculed by the cryptocurrency trading community in Poland.

Cryptocurrency traders in Poland have decided to take action against the draconian rules by launching a petition which is seeking the abolishment of taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. The petition has been ongoing through the website Change.org.

One of the statements on the Change.org website states that: ?As Poles, we are demanding the release of the blockchain technology market and the abolition of all taxes related to this industry.?

The petition further points out that the country?s citizens want to be actively involved in the decentralized ledger technology rather than just being active participant?s in the future through foreign entities or Polish institutions. This highlights the fact that cryptocurrencies currently provide the most active way to experience blockchain technology. The petition has so far been signed by more than 2,700 people.

It is currently believed that the government of Poland has implemented such strict taxes so as to discourage cryptocurrency trading which it believes to be risky. The petitioners hope that the authorities will consider their plea and make changes to the tax policy which currently does not favor crypto trading at all.

The petition points out the government failed to consult any parties before coming up with the regulation which seems to be aimed at locking out traders from a market that is constantly growing.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland has particularly expressed his opinion and even described cryptocurrency as a Ponzi scheme.

The petition also argues that many of the cryptocurrency traders in the country will end up losing their investment capital as a result of the oppressive tax regime. Despite the aggressiveness against the cryptocurrency market, the Polish government has been very open-minded about blockchain technology due to the wide range of applications that it offers.

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Ruchi Gupta works as a freelancer covering various beats from finance to technology and from lifestyle to hobbies. She has an MBA in Finance. Ruchi enjoys writing on celebrities and political news. She likes traveling and exploring places.